Rio men rout Bears in RSC quarterfinals

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - It was a big second half effort against Oakland City University which secured a win and the River States Conference regular season title for the University of Rio Grande men's soccer team.
     The same formula now has the RedStorm playing for the league's tournament championship and a berth in the NAIA national tournament.
     Giorgos Mavris scored two of Rio's five second half markers and assisted on another as the RedStorm rolled to a 7-0 rout of rival Shawnee State in the semifinal round of the RSC Championship, Saturday afternoon, at Evan E. Davis Field.
     Rio Grande, which improved to 10-4-1 with a ninth consecutive victory, will host third-seeded West Virginia University-Tech in Wednesday afternoon's title game.
     The Golden Bears advanced by defeating Oakland City in a penalty kick shoot out in Saturday's other semifinal.
     Sophomore Rafael Kawata (Sao Paulo, Brazil) added a goal and two assists in the winning effort, while freshman Felipe Braga (Presidente Prudente, Brazil) also had a goal and an assist.
     Despite not pulling away until the second half, Rio Grande dominated the visiting Bears (8-8-3) from the outset.
     The RedStorm finished with a 25-5 edge in shots overall, a 13-3 advantage in shots on frame and a whopping 15-2 cushion in corner kick chances. All but five of the Rio corners came in the opening half.
     Senior Joe McInnes (Airdrie, Scotland) got the scoring underway and gave the RedStorm the only goal it would need when he played Shawnee keeper Eric Green's deflection of a shot by Kawata into the back of the net with 20:04 left in the opening half.
     The lead grew to 2-0 when senior Diego Martinez (Santiago, Chile) played a crossing pass by Kawata into the goal with 10:58 showing on the clock.
     Rio Grande officially put the win on ice with two more goals - in a span of less than three minutes - early in the second half.
     Freshman Estevao Goncalves (Sao Paulo, Brazil) scored off a touch by Kawata with 31:18 remaining in the contest, while Kawata tacked on a penalty kick just over two minutes later to extend the lead to 4-0.
     Mavris, a freshman from Larnaca, Cyprus, then got into the mix over the course of the RedStorm's final three scores.
     He scored off an assist by sophomore Lucas O'Donnell (Leeds, England) with 20:08 left, then assisted on a goal by Braga with 8:18 remaining to make it 6-0.
     Braga returned the favor just 69 seconds later, assisting on Mavris' second marker to set the final score.
     Senior Matheus de Campos (Brasilia, Brazil) stopped three shots en route to a clean sheet effort in goal for Rio Grande.
     Green had six saves in the loss for the Bears.
     Wednesday championship game against WVU Tech is slated for a 2 p.m. kickoff.